various spots, fruitfulness, and activity in the night. The
goat (which, by the by, is said to be absent from the earth and
present with Satan a part of every twenty-four hours of the day, and
can never be seen from sunrise to sunrise without being lost sight of
for a longer or shorter time) was honoured as the representation of
manhood in full vigour, and was worshipped, from gratitude to the
gods, for multiplying the people of the country. The crocodile was
also advanced to the dignity of a god. If one killed any of the sacred
animals designedly, he was put to death,--if involuntarily, his
punishment was referred to the priests; but if a man killed a hawk, a
cat, or an ibis, whether designedly or not, he died without mercy.
During a severe famine, when the Egyptians became cannibals, not one
of them was known to have tasted the sacred animals.

All revered animals were kept at great expense, and when they died
costly funerals took place. When the Apis died at Memphis, in the
reign of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, his funeral cost not less than
L13,000 sterling. When a cat died, the family it belonged to expressed
great grief, and prayed and fasted several days. In cases of fire,
more care was taken to preserve the feline animals than the most
valuable property in the house. Dead cats, which were almost
invariably embalmed, were sometimes carried from remote parts to be
interred in the city of Bubastis, and hawks and moles were buried with
great solemnity at Butos, even though they should have died in foreign
countries. Juvenal mentions that leeks and onions were objects of
worship, and others say that the lotus was also sacred in various
parts of the East. The priests were both physicians and interpreters
of oracles; they carefully observed the phenomena of nature, and
registered every uncommon occurrence. From such observations, they
calculated the results of other events of similar nature. Hence arose
the practice of divination, and afterwards that of dispensing oracles.
Oracles were erected in every part of Egypt. Even the sacred animals
had their several oracles. The Apis was consulted by observing into
which of his chambers he entered. By a certain principle understood,
the omen was regarded as foretelling good or evil.

The barbarous custom of sacrificing human victims was long in force in
Egypt, and prevailed down to the reign of Amasis, by whom it was
abolished. Not to give too severe a shock to the superstitiou